


Southern Summer, Barefoot Blue Jean Night

by magicianparrish



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: F/M, M/M, Pynch Week 2018, pynchweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 10:06:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15410568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicianparrish/pseuds/magicianparrish
Summary: Day 2 of Pynch Week 2018: “Wait, you’ve liked me for how long?”Or au where Ronan and Adam did not meet in high school, Blue convinces Adam to be some kind of maintenance man to help Ronan, and you can figure out the rest.





	Southern Summer, Barefoot Blue Jean Night

**Author's Note:**

> Happy day 2 of Pynch Week! This is probably where I will fall off the wagon and try desperately to get back on again. But alas work has taken over my entire life for the next week, so we'll see. 
> 
> This also seems kind of rushed, and I'm bad at writing stories that are like under 10 thousand words it seems, but here we are. Hope you all enjoy it! 
> 
> This was not beta'd or edited so all mistakes are mine!
> 
> Also, I know literally nothing about environmental engineering, minus doing some very, very light preliminary research (aka Wikipedia) so don't think hard on it please lol

“Maybe you should think about getting a maintenance man,” Blue suggested. 

Ronan looked down from where he was on the roof of one of the barns. She had cat-eye glasses shading her eyes from the sun and a ripped shirt that exposed her tan shoulder to the rays. Her choppy black hair was still in an array of mismatching clips. And she had a smirk on her lips. 

He took the nail that had been balancing between his lips out and glared at her from above. He swiped his shirt that he had shrugged off and wiped his head with it to get rid of the sweat. Ronan didn’t think it helped in the slightest, because the shirt was burning too. The joys of only having black things to wear. 

“I’m not getting a fucking maintenance man. If you think I need it so bad, then why don’t you make yourself useful?” Ronan bit back. 

She scoffed. “I’m only here because Gansey came to visit. Not that I don’t like you, because I do.” 

Ronan hummed in response. Gansey did come to visit from his globetrotting adventures but was currently inside the main house taking a phone call about something or another. Leaving Blue bored, and coming out to annoy Ronan instead. 

He picked up another roofing tile to lay it on and put the nail in his hand between this fingers and the hammer in the other. He nailed it into place and then did another. 

“I’m just saying! All your things would get done quicker! I also may know a guy!” she continued. 

Ronan paused for a moment. He didn’t like the way she said the last part. Like she was already predicting the future, even though she was the only person in her family of psychics that could not do it. Ronan huffed. 

“No, Maggot. Stop being suggestive.” 

Blue made a sound that indicated she had no idea what he was talking about. 

“I wasn’t being suggestive, Ronan Lynch. How dare you accuse me of such a thing.” 

Ronan put down his nails and hammer so he could go over and see her on the ground.  She had her arms crossed over her chest and she was standing firm. 

“I wasn’t born fucking yesterday, you know,” he retorted. 

Blue shrugged her shoulders. “Whatever. Have fun toiling away alone in the hot sun, then.” 

Then she walked away and towards the main house. 

 

* * *

 

Adam was doing an impressive balancing act of holding his phone between his shoulder and ear while reaching for a book on a shelf that was just out of his reach in the public library. He finally stretched himself just far enough to jimmy the edge of the spine out and into his grasp before he snapped back to normal. He let out a sigh before turning back to his whispered conversation on the phone.

“Blue, why would I ever want to do that?” he asked her. 

He made his way over to the checkout desk, which hosted a bored to death college student who was obviously doing it for work study. They didn’t even care that he was on the phone in a library. He handed the books over and watched the computer screen light up their face as they scanned the books. Before they could even ask, Adam handed over his MIT student ID for them to scan and link the books together to his name. And then without a single word exchanged, Adam grabbed them back, slung his backpack to the front and put them in there before walking out. 

“Because you need money. I know you don’t want any more loans stacked up, and it’s just a summer job anyway,” Blue reasoned. 

Adam stepped out of the library and walked down the steps and into the warm, sunny May day. He fished out his sunglasses to put over his face. 

“I always need money, Blue. And really, a _maintenance man?_ ” he again, repeated to her. “I also swore I’d never go back there again, and I meant it.” 

“And I get that.” 

_ Do you though? _ He mentally asked himself. He, of course, had the forethought not to actually voice his doubt over the phone to one of his only best friends. He let her continue on her case. 

“But, it’s not actually in Henrietta.” 

“But it’s close by,” he debated back. 

“Singer’s Falls, which is like at least a good forty-five minutes away in the middle of nowhere. Even Henrietta isn’t that much of nowhere. Plus,” she continued to reason. She paused, and Adam wasn’t sure it was just because she was being dramatic or not. 

“It would be on a farm. You can work on your fancy-smancy Ph.D. thesis there, and do some field work. Quite literally. Put those environmental engineering degrees to good use.” 

Adam stalled in the middle of the sidewalk. Some people bumped into him, so he stepped to the side as to not be in anyone’s way. He leaned against a light post and crossed his arms over his chest. 

“Whose bright idea was this?” he asked. 

The first thought would be for Blue’s partner/long-term boyfriend, Gansey. Since the first time he had met, Gansey had taken a liking to Adam, and always wanting to impress him for some unknown reason. Adam felt like he was the one who had to impress Gansey if anything. The way he held himself, the way he looked; it was everything Adam had always strived to be. 

Gansey and he got along fine though. With the minor debacle with the difference of opinions and perspectives of life occasionally. Adam grew into someone he wanted to be without having to mirror those he had always envied. He got to where he was all by himself, and he be damned if no one knew it. 

“It was my idea, Adam Parrish,” Blue declared with a huff. 

Adam couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at her tone. He rolled his eyes, though she couldn’t see him through the phone. He mulled over the pros and cons in his head. It was always something he did before he came to a final decision. It had always been something he did, something that had been born out of necessity and now just stuck around for convenience. 

“And where would I stay, Blue?” he asked her. 

“You could stay there with him,” she suggested like it was not a big deal. 

It was, in fact, a huge deal. Adam physically recoiled at the idea of it, and he was thankful people in cities didn’t pay attention to anyone but themselves. 

“Please tell me you understand that sounds insane, right? I don’t even know who you are talking about.” 

“It’s Gansey’s best friend. You know of him, I know you do. And what makes it so different than living with a random roommate in a dorm for four years and onwards?” she rebutted. 

Adam did know of the infamous Ronan Lynch. And now that he knew that it was him, it put a new wrench into his perspective. Adam had seen photos of him, had even ogled at them secretly. The man was intimidating in the way people were charmed by dangerous animals. And Adam had been no exception. 

Blue took Adam’s silence as permission to barrel on. “Since you’ve gone radio silent on your end, I’m taking that you’ll do it.” 

That shook Adam out of his reverie. “I never agreed to that, Blue.” 

“But your hesitance says it all. If you were vehemently against it, you would’ve said so and hung up on me,” she countered. 

Adam silently cursed her for knowing him so well. 

“Fuck you, Blue,” he said. But it was not malicious. And Blue knew it if her laughter was anything to go by. Then Adam hung up.

 

* * *

Ronan was still bitter about the fact that Blue and Gansey had gone behind his back to hire this maintenance man, and have the audacity to suggest that he could live at the Barns too. He had cursed up a storm, pointed fingers and chewed the two of them out when he had first heard; but like the two assholes they were, they were completely unfazed by him, due to years of building up immunity.

They wouldn’t even say who it was, which Ronan found inherently unfair and unjust. Blue said it was an old friend of hers; some high-end college boy from MIT who was getting his Ph.D. in something that Ronan tuned out because he was bitter. 

But what he would never admit to, was that he knew he needed help. The occasional hand Matthew gives would never be enough to get all the things done in a day or week or month. Ronan had a lot of things he wanted to accomplish, but it was difficult to do so when you did it by yourself. And he was kind of curious about this guy. Maybe he was hot. Blue had given him a look that suggested that he could be Ronan’s type, not that she’d know any better. 

So he secretly counted down the days, and soon it was there. He had been told that the guy would be there in the morning, so Ronan decided to wait upon his front veranda. He sat in one of the old wicker rocking chairs that his mother had loved so much with his feet propped up on the railing. A cup of Irish breakfast tea was being nursed in his hand. 

Chainsaw, the raven he had rescued when she was a baby flew onto the armrest and cawed at him to get Ronan’s attention. He gently pet the feathers of her head, which she leaned into approvingly. Then he opened up the bag of food he kept around for her to peck her way through. Which she also did with enthusiasm.

He didn’t know how long he was out there when he saw a car pull up the long gravel driveway that led up to the main house. It was definitely an old car, not in the type of Gansey’s muscle car ‘73 Camaro, but in the fact that it belonged in a junkyard. It was like it had been welded together by Victor Frankenstein if cars had existed in the eighteen hundreds. 

Ronan watched in curiosity as the guy sat in his car for a few more minutes. He couldn’t see the guy well through the windshield, and he was tempted to go up and say something but decided that he wanted the guy to come to him. 

He took another sip of his tea that had gone lukewarm. Chainsaw then decided to hop onto his shoulder, and he let her. Finally, the guy opened up the door to his car and got out. Ronan nearly choked on his tea. 

The rays from sunrise seemed to engulf him perfectly. It showed off the golden tint of his shaggy hair and the warm tan tone of his skin. He was tall, and definitely on the side of lankier, but from what Ronan could see, definitely had some muscle mass on him. 

Ronan knew exactly who it was that was standing before him, and God, he was going to kill those two idiots when he got the next chance.

He watched as Adam fucking Parrish stretched his arms over his head and twisted his body to crack his back. Then he had the audacity to run his hand through his hair, showing off to Ronan his biceps. He took a sip of his tea to hopefully hide the hotness on his face. 

Ronan refused to move and watched as Adam finally closed the door and sauntered over towards the front steps to the porch. As he got closer, Ronan noticed that he looked almost exactly the same as he remembered, but also completely different too.

All that mattered was that Ronan still had the hots for him, years later. He was wearing a white t-shirt that hugged all the right places, and a pair of worn out jeans with holes that were definitely not a style choice and ratty sneakers. He was dressed to get dirty. His blue eyes took Ronan in as he leaned against the railing with his arms crossed. 

“Am I really worth the wait, Lynch?” he asked, his deep voice sending a chill down Ronan’s spine. 

Ronan was also shocked that Adam even knew who he was. Which was stupid, because he knew Adam was best friends with Blue, therefore in Gansey’s orbit of friends. But the two had never really actually met, or held a conversation before. Due to the fact that Ronan never left past DC, and that Adam never left Boston. But now somehow Blue had roped Adam into coming here. 

He scowled and put his mug down on the little table next to the chair. He stood up, relishing in the small height advantage he had over Adam. It wasn’t much, but it was all he needed. Adam looked up but didn’t look all that impressed. Another thing Ronan loved. 

“Don’t flatter yourself, Parrish. It was a slow morning. Let’s go.” 

* * *

 

Having Adam around was a blessing in disguise. Adam knew his way around power tools, he could mow the lawn, and mend fences and just about everything else Ronan could think of. The only thing he stayed away from was anything animal related, which Ronan didn’t mind.  

He stayed up in Ronan’s old room, while Ronan himself had moved into the master bedroom a few years after high school. Ronan enjoyed the company Adam brought to the Barns. 

Ronan had come down the stairs and into the kitchen to see Adam was already up. He had his old laptop on, with a mountain of papers piled up next to him, and was furiously typing away with a concentration that was intense. Ronan shuffled around and made himself a cup of tea and put a pop tart into the toaster to eat. 

“What’re you working on there?” he asked as he took a bite. 

Adam didn’t respond for a moment, but then looked up taking a sip of his black coffee. He glanced down at a paper, that had his horrible handwriting on it. 

“Some notes and ideas,” he responded. 

“For what?” Ronan prodded. He normally wasn’t chatty, but he was curious about Adam and everything else. 

“My observations on working on a farm in rural Virginia and how to make it more environmentally efficient. It will be part of my doctoral paper.” 

“And what’s that? Stop making bonfires and burning shit for fun? You know you enjoy that as much as I do,” Ronan snipped. 

A smirk appeared on Adam’s face, and Ronan felt his heart flutter at the reaction. He counted that as a win. 

“Not that kind of thing, and I won’t deny that burning shit is cathartic in a strange way. I mean something along the lines of, implementing a new type of irrigation system to help your crops flourish better during their seasons. Right now it seems to be all kinds of messed up because you do it by hand. If we put pipes in or something to regulate it, you’d have a more successful harvest. Or putting up solar panels on the property to channel the energy into the farmhouses, instead of relying on oil. You get so much sun here, you’d be better off. Plus, you’d probably save money in the long run.” 

“I don’t have to worry about money,” he said back. 

Adam gave him a look of disdain. For a moment, Ronan had forgotten this guy had come from nothing, and always had to worry about money. It was the fact that in high school he had worked three jobs, one of which Ronan may have frequently gone to just to see Adam indirectly, but that was no one’s business but his own.

“But those ideas don’t sound dumb,” he said saving himself. It worked, Adam rolled his eyes, but Ronan had learned Adam’s language over the past month. It meant he was over it. 

Ronan stood up and went outside for a moment through the back door. Immediately he regretted it and came back inside. 

“It’s hot as fuck outside,” he complained. 

“Well it is July in Virginia,” Adam snidely commented. 

“I should’ve had a pool installed here,” Ronan said, mostly to himself, but Adam caught it anyway. 

“Lucky for you then, I have taken the time to dig out one for days like today.” 

Ronan turned to face Adam. He was smirking and looked over the screen on his laptop. Ronan felt his eyebrows raise on his face. 

“The fuck you mean? With what? When?” he demanded. 

Adam flapped his hand. “When you’re out doing all the animal shit that I don’t go near. I dug it out far in the field by a spring with one of your abandoned backhoes. Put it to good use.” 

A smile broke out on Ronan’s face. “Parrish, you bastard. What are we waiting for then?” 

Adam smiled back and shut his laptop down. They both ran out of the house and Adam led him to the hole/pool he had made. Ronan went to the edge to observe, it looked pretty deep, deep enough to swim in which was good. Then he felt a push and was submerged in cold water which sent a shock through his body. 

When he emerged he saw Adam hysterical laughing on the edge, holding his stomach. Ronan wiped the water from his face and scowled. 

“Parrish!” he belted. It only made Adam laugh more. “I’ll get you for this.” 

“No, you won’t!” 

He had taken off his shirt and pants, only to be left in his boxers before he ran and cannonballed into the hole next to Ronan, creating a wave that once again doused Ronan with water. When Adam emerged he shook his head like a dog but was smiling like an idiot. Ronan decided to spit the water that came into his mouth towards Adam who recoiled. 

“Ack! Gross, Ronan!” he exclaimed. 

The two of them jumped in an out of the hole for hours, trying to determine who could make the biggest splash. Ronan tried out some dives he remembered doing as a kid, no matter how much Adam protested about how he would not drive him to the hospital if he broke his neck from being stupid. They played a game called Pick, where one of them would throw a small item (like a toothpick) into the water and whoever found it first had to scream “Pick!” to win the round. Most rounds were unsuccessful due to the water being kind of murky, but it was still fun. 

Ronan even put the came Colors to the test, just so he would be able to hold Adam bridal style without it possibly being weird. 

“C’mon, Parrish. Get my color right,” Ronan goaded. 

Adam’s head was soaked from just being dumped underwater for the fourth time in a row. He looked disgruntled and amused at the same time somehow. “I bet it’s something dumb, like  _ chartreuse _ .” 

“The fuck you think I am, Gansey? No, it’s a simple color, even you can get it.” Then Ronan dunked his head again just because. 

“What was that for?” Adam exclaimed. 

“For thinking I’d think of chartreuse as a color. Now guess.” 

The color Ronan was thinking of was the blue of Adam’s eyes. They were like an ice blue, unnerving to look at for a long time, but also mesmerizing. Adam sighed. 

“I dunno,” he southern accent melting his words like honey, “blue?” 

Ronan grinned, dunked his head before flipping him underneath the water and letting him go. When he came back up he spat some water at Ronan. 

“This is the dumbest game I’ve ever played. You don’t get any reward for guessing right. Who came up with it anyway?” 

Ronan shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno. Used to play it with my brothers all the time. And that’s a lie, you get the satisfaction of guessing my color.”

Adam scoffed and pushed Ronan's shoulder, but somehow slipped. He let out a yelp of surprise and Ronan reflexively caught him by the shoulders. Adam’s face was so close to his, he could count and see every individual freckle that painted his nose and cheekbones. Ronan fantasized about them for years. Adam’s blue eyes were wide and they were staring at Ronan like he was searching for his soul. He watched his eyes move to his lips for a moment, and Ronan felt his heart soar. 

This is not happening, he thought to himself in a panic. His eyes stayed on Ronan’s lips. 

This is totally happening, was his next thought. 

Adam then leaned in and Ronan met him halfway, sealing the kiss, igniting fireworks inside his heart and stomach. He had no idea how long it lasted, it could’ve been a minute or a year for all he cared. But it was everything he dreamed of. 

“I was hoping you’d meet me,” Adam huffed out after a smile. “I’ve been waiting for a while for you to give some signals.” 

Ronan threw his head back and laughed. “Not as long as I have, Parrish.” 

Adam cocked his head and arched his eyebrow. “Oh yeah?” 

“Yeah, try almost ten years.” 

His blue eyes widened and his mouth dropped. “Wait, you’ve liked me for  _ how  _ long?” he stuttered out. 

Ronan nodded. He didn’t need to repeat himself. “Yeah, that long, Parrish. Now, shut your mouth before you catch flies, and put it to good use.” 

Adam shook himself out of his shock and pushed Ronan’s face before pulling him in for another kiss.     

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all liked it! Yes, I got some ideas straight out of the Opal short story, but it was too good to resist not using here because it's such a great little tidbit. 
> 
> Also, those dumb games the two play, are legit games I used to play with my cousins in the pool when I was younger. It was a lot of fun lmao 
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are always appreciated dearly by me :) Thanks for reading!


End file.
